Lomachenko's Jab against Lopez

If he had only thrown it at a slightly closer distance it would have been effective, as Teofimo defended with his legs and chin most of the night... That tendency is going to hurt him when he fights someone who's not afraid to bang like Josh Taylor...

 

Fastest jab in boxing?



For one thing, 40 year old Pac's jabs are faster, though he's not reliant on jabs to set up his offense.

Crawford's jab is faster.

Inoue's jab is probably also faster.

 

Sure.. My point was that Teofimo rolled with or evaded most of Loma's jabs because Loma wouldn't fight at a distance from which he could land them effectively. As Taylor is a much bigger guy who isn't afraid to mix it up inside, he has a greater chance of hitting the target.

 

Was it ever verified that Loma had a bad shoulder before the Lopez fight? I seen were he had surgery or something after

 

Better jabs out there bro

 

I don't think the distance was the problem it was how he was throwing it. Loma likes to step to the outside to create an angle to throw the jab over his opponents lead hand, we saw him do that a lot vs Campbell in the previous fight. But Lopez figured this out and was watching for the shift to the outside and it became a tell the jab was coming and Lopez would then evade it and then throw a right hand counter down the pipe. This took away Loma's jab for the early part of the fight.

But Loma is Loma and eventually he adapted and started to throw the jab on the inside of the lead hand instead of the outside getting rid of his tell and that's when Loma's jab started landing and he took over the fight.

The jab will be crucial for Loma, he can't do what he did before, he needs to show more variety in his jab in a rematch and Lopez knows it's key to much of his success and will again be looking to find ways to take his jab away from him and if that does happen Loma can't take as long as he did to figure it out.

 

Loma doesn't really have a strong jab. It is one of the reasons he lost. It is primarily a touch or rangefinder for him. He does have a very good right hook, however, but this is negated when his angle switch is nullified. He would need to do a Whitaker style of throwing a hard jab consistently, with your feet inside, then move them outside to throw the left hook.

The big reason Loma lost IMO is that he would not, or could not, punch with Lopez. This is how you will beat him - Jab when he jabs, roll and immediately counter when he hooks. Loma is primarily a front foot volume puncher. He doesn't really have the instinct to do this on the front foot, and he is also too small and physically outgunned. He doesn't have the physical dimensions to do this on the outside to great effect, though he would have some success due to his footwork and agility. I thought this was a bout that showed the weakness of a EE style - they just don't punch with fighters, they usually initiate, defend then respond. I doubt Loma wins a rematch, if it even happens.

For current fighters, Inoue, J Rock, Crawford, Taylor and Kenshiro have better jabs.

 

Loma is more aesthetic stylewise, and might even be as skilled, but his craft, and more importantly the application of his craft, is not better than Crawford's. Crawford is a top adjuster and figures out fighters quickly. He has a very quick mind and a very, very good chance against anyone around his weight and possibly higher. Crawford wouldn't need 6 rounds to 'download the info', and would take the risk of punching with the opponent to score a high risk, high reward counter.